Category Archives: Whatever

From the classroom, Whatever

Disorganized like me

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I came across an interesting article yesterday at the NY Times website (link) that sounded so familiar to me – as I’m sure it will to the rest of you teachers out there; but I wonder if those of you who parent boys won’t find it to ring true also.

One of the major challenges that I have working with my college-age male students is a lack of organizational and study skills. I saw the same in the few years I spent teaching elementary and high-school boys. The article talks about the need for these kids to visit tutors in order to learn those skills, which, let’s face it, are so basic to success in school that I wonder why they’re not ever taught as part of the regular curriculum.

Teaching kids how to learn seems so… basic; yet the assumption is that kids just know how to do those things that make success at it possible. That I or any other college professor should need to spend time, week after week, showing the same boys how to organize a binder or how to keep a record of when assignments are due – how silly, I think, considering all the *more important* stuff that schools are so focused on.

The funny thing is that I’m not a very good role model for the type of behavior I teach and my students sometimes see it. Too often they get a peak into my messy school bag filled with last semester’s final exams, grocery store receipts and that great new poetry book I picked up weeks ago and then immediately misplaced.

😉

Do as I say, not as I do – right? Thank God no one ever sees the state of my desk here at home – the piles of bills mixed with the piles of books and the blotter still stuck in April of 2007 covered with fragments and whispers and book titles and phone numbers important enough that I won’t turn the page.

Anyone willing to fess up along with me to being a disorganized girl?

😉

Whatever

Tail end

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So… it’s New Year’s Eve and the time to reflect on all that’s happened this year and to look forward to whatever may come to pass in the new one.

Or, maybe, you’re less pathetic than I and are out doing something fun tonight!

I’ve always disliked New Year’s Eve and that need to be doing something, anything, other than what I feel like doing, which is typically …. nothing. I’ve usually had enough of the running around associated with the holidays at this point and am starting to think about going back to work and some sense of normalcy to my days. And that makes me want to cocoon myself beneath a blanket and preserve the sense of peace I feel right now – no parties, no relatives, no loud music or false show of cheeriness for the sake of a random day on the calendar.

I would like to thank all of you who come by here to read my ramblings for sharing a part of yourselves with me and enriching my life this past year. Everyday I feel humbled by your generous spirits and so glad for the chance to laugh and cry and be silly with you all. That I should feel connected as I do, to you all and to your lives in some small way, continues to puzzle me as much as it delights me. Anyway… thank you friends.

My wish at year’s end last year was that we should all find hope and beauty in the coming year. I was thinking then about how we sometimes come across those things in unexpected ways, or unexpected places, or even people, sometimes.

So I wondered if I’d done myself what I’d wished for us all to do… had I found hope or beauty in the unexpected? Had I been open enough to the world for that to be possible?

Looking back through the archives here I found these examples of having had my wish for the year:

January was full of beauty, mostly because I hosted the Good Planets show that month.

February brought the unexpected beauty of iceboats on the river.

In March there was hope for spring that came in the form of a witch hazel.

In April I visited the NJ Meadowlands and found beauty there too – certainly unexpected!

May was full of searching out wildflowers, and one special one that I finally found surprisingly close to home.

More flowers in June and the tiniest of beautiful butterflies.

July brought hope in the form of a little pup named Luka. God – was he ever really that small?

In retrospect, August reads like a month of transitions for me mostly, but there was some beauty from the garden, too.

September and the changing season brought a little surprise from the beach.

October had the beauty of skimmers, and buckeyes, and sanderlings. Not to mention the fun of meeting friends come to visit from afar!

There were sanderlings and the faces of friends in November, too and a beautiful day birding at Sandy Hook.

December’s been mostly foolishness, but there was this bit of the unexpected that had me smiling.

So that’s my year-in-review at the tail end of it. A good one, I think, full of nice things to remember. Some sadness, of course, but just enough to make the happy times be appreciated.

Stay safe tonight and be sure to find someone in time for that New Year’s kiss!

Whatever

Eccentric, unconventional, bizarre… quirky!

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Thanks to all who sent pics. I’ve had fun seeing what you think of as quirky or odd. I’ll leave the links out to protect the innocent!

(Yeah, mine, I’ll own up to it!)

A drunken Santa…

Just a little too much…

Cheers!

Just plain cute, I think…

Xmas bunnies… awww

Old-fashioned can be quirky?

Homemade is sweet, not quirky, I think…

The favorite… stolen from the neighborhood.

Happy Christmas everyone.

Seasons, Snapshots, Whatever

Not your normal xmas card

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Bear with me as I gear up to that quirky xmas decoration post – I’m delighting in some other examples of quirkiness!

Is it me or is this not your normal family xmas pic? Before you think anything too untoward, be reminded that this is my brother Kevin and his wife and daughter. And yes, those are real chickens they’re holding – their chickens! I can just imagine the scene with my SIL bringing those little banties into the photographer’s studio along with all her other *props*.

This was last year’s card and the one for this year hasn’t arrived yet, but I had some hint of the *theme* for this year’s shoot a few days before Thanksgiving when the SIL wanted to send me on a shopping run for matching aprons to complete the cooking concept of this year’s pic. I honestly don’t know how she comes up with the creative energy to think these things up and then the time to carry it through so well. How could I not look forward to receiving a card like this?

I’ll admit to being terribly bored by most xmas cards and think them to be a waste. Most I throw away immediately. (Shame on me… I know!) The ones I keep secreted away in a special box are ones like this, or those with photos of my friend’s kids, or the handmade ones, or the ones from special friends or family who take the time to actually write something meaningful. Cause, let’s face it, often it’s the only time we hear from a lot of people and if you’re going to take the time to send a card, couldn’t you also be bothered to write a little something in it as well, besides your name?

😉

Every year I look forward to a card from Joan who mentored me as a first year teacher. She doesn’t write much besides an update on a few of the kids we taught together and the fact that she’s almost (but not quite) ready to retire. I recognize her deliberate teacher’s block print on the envelope and smile at the thought of what news her hand will bring me.

There’s always a handwritten note tucked inside the card from the director of the bird observatory where I volunteer; Pete’s sure to wish me well in the new year and thank me for volunteering for them for more years than either of us can remember.

I don’t know… I feel like cards aren’t worth the effort if they don’t communicate something beyond the standard greeting pre-printed on the inside. What do you say? Any in particular that you anticipate each year?

Snapshots, Whatever

Just another Monday

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Beach plums in bloom make me happy, so I’m posting this pic, as unseasonable as it is, in an attempt to temper my crankiness. Other than normal Monday crankiness, this is what had me frazzled today:

*My camera – it’s fine I think, just something wrong with the memory card, but that means spending money on a new one or sorting out what to do with this one and really do I have time for that now?

*Street signs – why don’t towns maintain them for dopey social workers like me who go out without a proper map? And why don’t people put numbers on their damn houses?

*I locked myself out of the house… again. Only the second time in a month, mind you.

*I still haven’t done any Xmas shopping! What the devil is the matter with me!

*It’s a little chilly here and my mother-in-law ran out of oil to heat her house and didn’t mention it to anyone. (I won’t mention the two brothers-in-law that live with her and who also didn’t mention it nor did they mention there was no money to buy more oil.) Hello? Are my relatives particularly nutty or do yours do this type of thing, too?

(And I see the ridiculousness of worrying over xmas gifts when the MIL has no heat.. I do!)

*Speaking of relatives (I should probably just stop before I really get on a roll, but can’t resist just one more tidbit) – digging around in the closet this evening looking for cookie tins, I found Xmas presents from last year for my nephew, all wrapped pretty and waiting for his dad to show up for them. I guess they’ll still be there this Xmas if he ever bothers to let me know if he’s planning to come for dinner!

Hmm.. that’s probably enough. So how was your Monday?

😉

It’ll be better in the morning… I know.

Whatever

Picless

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I had trinkets to share tonight, but my camera isn’t cooperating for some reason. Hopefully it’s just a battery issue and not another electronic gadget gone permanently awry, like the iPod.

At any rate, I should mention that I’m still holding out for more quirky xmas decoration pics as I’ve only received a few. So please send them along, if you’d intended to.

Have a nice Monday!

Snapshots, Whatever

Seven random things

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I’ve been tagged by Endment with a meme to list seven random things. I’ve done some variation on this meme a few times, but they seem well-buried in the archives in case I repeat myself.

Here are the rules:

Link to the person who tagged you and post the rules on your blog.
Share 7 random or weird things about yourself.
Tag 7 people at the end of your post, and include links to their blogs.
Let each person know they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.

So here goes:


1. I have a newly-minted relative. Here’s his pic. Can you tell he’s not from my side of the family with that dark hair! His name is Giovanni.

2. The only magazine I subscribe to and read regularly is Vanity Fair. At the moment, I carry three issues to and from work with me every day, but clearly don’t find the time to read them.


3. Speaking of work, my cubicle-buddy Linda came back today after being out on maternity leave since early September. Linda is Dominican and it’s so nice to have someone to share *bochinche* with and chat in Spanish again.

4. I still haven’t really started my Xmas shopping. Can you say denial?


5. My favorite place to bird in Cape May is Hidden Valley Ranch. We never even got there when the flock was here in October, but the habitat is similar to Higbee’s (pictured here on a very birdy morning) except that there’s also a nice bit of wet woods and oftentimes Barred Owls (and horses)!


6. I finally had to buy Luka a new collar because he’s outgrown the old one. Of course he wouldn’t cooperate for his picture and insisted on sitting on me while I tried to take it, but the collar is a pretty shade of blue with neon green alligators on it and reminds me of the preppy ties I like to buy for my brothers from Vineyard Vines.

7. Ever wonder what brings the most visitors to this blog from Google searches? This post and its pic of bunny poop. Go figure!

I’ll tag:

Susan, of course, at Susan Gets Native
Rabbit’s Guy at A Houseful of Rabbits
Dave at Bird TLC and Around Anchorage
Trixie at Trixie’s View
Ruthie J. at Nature Knitter
Jennifer at A Passion for Nature
Larry at The Brownstone Birding Blog

Birds, Garden, Whatever

Wildlife tree

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Ever thought to decorate a tree for the birds and other wildlife in your garden? As if you need something else to have to decorate?

😉

It might be something as simple as strings of popcorn and peanuts, cranberries and grapes, or something as elaborate (and pretty) as this wildlife tree at Longwood Gardens. The NWF suggests thin apple and orange slices, as well as pinecones coated with a mix of peanut butter and cornmeal then dipped in birdseed. Zick dough might be yummy too, I’d bet. And remember that your discarded xmas tree makes a great sheltering spot for birds and can be used as the base of a brush pile to attact other wildlife.

I took this pic last Christmas at Longwood and swore I’d make it back this past summer – didn’t happen. I wonder if anyone is going this Christmas? Heather in Pa. – is this tree a staple of the display? Do you know if the decorations are handmade?

Something else to add to the holiday to-do list.